The podcast that keeps you up to date with what is happening economy-wise in Northern Ireland.  Telling you what you need to know but not necessarily what you want to hear. It is better to be prepared for the economic environment we are operating in and not the world we would like to be in.

Over the last week or so the UK has been battered by Dudley, Eunice and Franklin.  Many households have been impacted by flooding and are knee-deep in water. We await to hear the ‘G’ and ‘H’ names of the subsequent storms that follow.

We are already aware of the advancing ‘T’ storm, or Tax storm. April will see us showered with more tax increases most notably the hike in National Insurance Contributions. Other stealth taxes announced last year are set to be much more painful due to inflation being much higher than expected.  These include the four-year freeze on the various income tax thresholds and the five-year freeze on the Pension Lifetime Allowance.

But households and businesses are most concerned about the ‘I’ storm that has been battering their finances with increasing force. The forecast is that the I storm will get worse and will be with us for the rest of the year and beyond. I am of course referring to inflation.

Previous podcasts such as episode 7 and episode 13 have focussed on inflation.  With the latter, back in November, focussing on the emerging cost of living crisis.

We have returned to this topic as the cost-of-living crisis has worsened considerably since November. The outbreak of war in the Ukraine has effectively thrown fuel on the cost-of-living and cost of doing business fires that were already raging. Vlad the invader has effectively added a ‘Putin Premium’ on top of that.